2025 Tokutomi Memorial Contest Results
Contest Results Announced by the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society
by Kathabela Wilson, 2025 Contest Chair, with Brochure Layout by Rick Wilson
The Yuki Teikei Haiku Society (YTHS) has announced the winners of the 2025 Kiyoshi and Kiyoko Tokutomi Haiku Contest.
The judges for the 2025 contest were Hiroyuki Murakami and Yuzo Ono. YTHS is deeply indebted to them for so graciously sharing their time and expertise.
- Hiroyuki Murakami is a Japanese haiku poet living in Tokyo. He was a dōjin of Yukuharu Haiku Society to 2019 and has been a YTHS dōjin since 2022. Member of the Japanese Association of Haiku Poets and translator for Haiku International, the Haiku International Association’s journal. Regularly contributes haiku and commentary to Geppo and YTHS members’ anthologies. He published Harvest Moon, his own English/Japanese haiku collection in 2023.
- Yuzo Ono is a haiku poet and writer based in Japan. He studied at the University of Tokyo (BA) and the Royal College of Art (MRes) in the UK. He won the Modern Haiku Association Award for Criticism in 2002 and the Modern Haiku Association New Talent Award (honorable mention) in 2005. He is a councilor of the Haiku International Association and a member of the British Haiku Society. website: https://yuzo-ono.com/
In addition to the four prize-winning haiku, ten equally-ranked haiku were chosen by the judges for Honorable Mention.
1st Prize:
a withered garden;
the lolly stick epitaph
of a family pet
~ Danny Blackwell
2nd Prize (two haiku tied for 2nd Prize):
philosophy books
are traded for hiking boots
the summer mountain
~ Valerie Rosenfeld
on a moonless night
the red coal of your cigar
burns between stories
~ Karin Hedetniemi
3rd Prize:
the withered garden
a bench that no one sits on
but afternoon light
~ Clark Strand
An Honorable Mention was awarded to each of the following people:
Danny Blackwell, Joshua Gage, Alison Woolpert, Charles Trumbull, Priscilla Lignori, Caroline LeBlanc, Keiko Izawa, Debbie Strange, Louis Talbot, Charles He.
Congratulations to all of these poets and great gratitude to the judges.
The illustrated brochure of all the haiku and the judges’ comments on the winners may be viewed by clicking on the brochure image at the top of this page, and/or downloaded here.